Today it seems like everybody’s tweeting…

Especially teens, who often put a lot of their feelings out on social media.

New research suggests that Twitter could literally be a lifesaver. Tweets can be monitored to identify people at risk of  committing suicide. 

“The value of Twitter is that it is real time, and because it’s real time, we have an opportunity to be taking action instead of looking at suicide data, suicide rates and saying ‘What are we going to do?’” – Michael Barnes, Brigham Young University

The team from Brigham Young University searched for tweets that contained words and phrases identified as red flags. Their research showed that states with the highest suicide rates also had the highest number of suicide related tweets. 

Monitoring tweets to save lives sounds good… or does it?

Some might suggest it is yet another example of someone snooping and intruding into your personal business.

Should Twitter be used to monitor and prevent suicide? Where do we draw the line between expressing feelings and posing a serious threat online?

Let us know what you think…